A Glasgow woman who fell ill in Dubai has been told she can not leave the country until her enormous £11,000 medical bill is paid.
Kat White and her husband Mick were on their way home after working in India for 12 months when they decided to spend a few days in the United Arab Emirates to visit friends.
Just days into their trip, 54-year-old Kat suffered a seizure while in the shower on April 25. Husband Mick was in shock as he watched his wife experience full body spasms, facial contortions and her hands curling back during the episode.
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She was quickly taken to hospital to undergo various tests but the couple have been left penniless after discovering their travel insurance, provided by Barclays Bank, did not cover Kat for treatment in the Middle East, reports the Record.
The couple is now trapped after hospital bosses withheld Mick's passport until he pays a £6,000 portion of the payment plans towards Kat's medical bill. He claims the UK embassy refused to help, telling them "we're not a charity" and have been left with no other option than to raise money with a GoFundMe page.
Mick, originally from Doncaster, said: "I don't know what to do, I feel like a prisoner."
"We got a few days into the trip to Dubai, she just didn't feel well. Then she suddenly had a full body spasm."
"She was in the shower and she was frozen stiff. I moved her to the bed but I couldn't even put her in the recovery position - her legs were frozen.
"I thought she was having a stroke. Her hands had curled up and her mouth changed."
When Kat was rushed to the hospital and Mick claims they were taken "down to billing" before they carried out any initial tests or treatments and within just nine hours she had racked up a bill of £1,800.
Later, doctors then encouraged Kat to spend another night in hospital for more tests and a drip which would cost a whopping £3,000.
Being unable to settle the costs, Kat was sent home with a batch of tablets and told she should feel better in four or five days. But, when Mick when out shopping he came back to find Kat lying on the floor, having suffered another seizure.
Kat was readmitted and told she would need an urgent MRI scan, however, medics couldn't determine what was causing the seizures.
Mick said he heard a doctor say their insurance covered "everything up until now" but any future treatments would have to be paid for by the couple themselves.
Barclays Bank travel insurance refused further charges because the specific trip did not start and end in the UK.
Their claim was not rejected during a previous trip to Saudi Arabia or when they first contacted their insurance company following Kat's episode - allowing them to claim for several treatments.
The couple have now been left with a ridiculous £11,000 medical bill and Kat is also unable to travel home without a fit to fly note.
Despite mounting charges, no one has been able to actually tell Kat what is causing the seizures.
Mick continued: "If you understand the mental anguish that my Mrs has gone through, I've seen it, I'm watching it. I'm trying to help her out, and I said to her today, 'we can guess what's wrong all day, but you need to be seen'.
"She had an MRI, but they came back and said the MRI was clear and that they couldn't see what the issue was. They said she might have a virus in her spinal column. That was pretty much the only diagnosis we got working with this."
Mick also said the level of care at the hospitals has not been great. "On one occasion, I walked into the room, and my wife was on the floor, and there's three orderlies around her," he explained.
"They've basically gone to catch her but not caught her and she's fallen. She was screaming saying 'just get me in bed please, I can't trust anybody but you'."
In one of the facilities, one of the patients had supposedly "splashed blood" all over the walls.
He continued: "We're in the third hospital and it's £300 for a blood test and consultation.
"This place wasn't very nice. There are people with blood, splashing blood all over the place and onto other patients."
The 54-year-old said he felt like hospitals in Dubai were an "extortion racket" and they were "pressganged" into the treatments, many of which were clearly unnecessary.
"Three or four doctors would come in and say 'she needs this, she needs that'.
"Sometimes my wife actually asked, is this something I really need?"
When asked how the embassy had helped the situation, Mick said they told him "we're not a charity".
According to the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office's website, it says they refuse to pay for costs like medical bills for British nationals abroad, adding that they provide advice instead.
The FCDO said: "We are providing consular assistance to a British couple in Dubai.”
The Mirror has reached out to Barclay's, the Travel Pack Plan insurance provider that Mick had taken out a number of years ago.
To donate to the GoFundMe, you can do so here.
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